


Yes Ma'm

by ifitships_isits



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-03 01:16:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8690836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifitships_isits/pseuds/ifitships_isits
Summary: Darcy takes over the tower.  And a bit of Steve's heart.(plan to do more with this, but haven't settled on the details)





	1. Introduction to the tower

**Author's Note:**

> I want to say right off, the rating will change eventually. I want to take the direction that Steve has a thing for bossy women, but I'm not sure how far I will go yet.

Steve didn’t know what to think of the girl. She had blown into the tower with Jane and Thor, ruthlessly taking over for Tony’s rotating staff of assistants that Pepper would send up in vain, and had brought some kind of organization to Bruce’s office, which most of the staff wouldn’t go near in fear of angering him. She kept all the scientist sleeping, eating and socializing with the rest of the group instead of hiding for days in their labs.   
She had also began to fix “Family dinners” for the Avengers three or four times a week,along with keeping the scientists fed on a regular basis. She would also leave various baked goods in the main kitchen. In exchange she forced everyone into a once-a-week movie night (avenging being the only excuse to not show up), her reasoning being that so many in the group were woefully behind in pop culture.

 

“Listen Double D. I’m an expert in pop culture. I have whole books written about how I’ve influenced it. I’m not lacking in pop culture.” Tony had glared at her. 

 

“Whatev’s Gramps. You wouldn’t know a Kardashian if they came up and stuck thier butt in your face.” Darcy snarked at him.

 

“Aren't those a race from Star Wars?” Steve asked, trying to be helpful.   
He really was trying to catch up, and Bruce had mentioned something about the show. They both looked at him with horror, and Tony looked at Darcy, jaw slack and shocked. He quickly recovered. Steve looked embarrassed, knowing he had just missed something. 

 

“Hell, yeah, short and stacked. We can’t have a national icon this woefully behind and making such grievous mistakes. Count me and Bruce in. We need him to balance out the “important stuff. Bruce has a killer I’m not going to let you fill his head with Nickelback and Justin Bieber songs. Or make him watch the Titanic.”   
Steve popped off.   
“I got that reference!” He said cheerfully.  
“Well, My heart will go on then.” Tony snorted. Steve gave him a puzzled look.  
Darcy pointed at Steve. “See? This is what I’m talking about! And you! Nickleback and Bieber are old news Gramps.”

 

“Hey! I resent that nickname! I’m not old! Steve here is the old man. I’m more….” Tony pondered for a moment.  
“Middle aged? Baby boomer?” Darcy said sweetly.  
Tony looked horrified. “You’re fired.” He pointed a finger at Darcy.   
“Tony, I’ve actually studied some history. The generation born after the war was called ‘baby boomers. Your father had you after the war. It’s an accurate description.” Steve said, trying to defuse the fight before it got started.   
“And you’re not my boss anyway. Jane and Pepper are. Besides, if you keep talking like Don Draper with the pet names, I’m gonna keep calling you an old man.” She stuck her tongue out at him. Tony winced at Pepper’s name, and his face fell when Darcy mentioned Don Draper.   
“Ok,I’ll ease up on the sexual harassment if you ease up on the age discrimination.” Tony put his hand out, and Darcy spit in her palm and shook his hand.   
“You have a deal. Oh, and you have cooties now!” Darcy laughed as Tony pulled his hand away quickly, wiping it on his worn and dirty shirt.  
Darcy darted towards the elevator, cackling the whole way.   
Steve sighed. They were really fun to watch. And the dame was so easy on the eyes. He blushed . He had managed to avoid his usual fumbling around her by some miracle. But he didn’t really know her. He wanted to.   
“She’s a bit bossy, isn’t she?” steve remarked as Tony returned to fiddling with one of Clint’s arrows.   
“Yeah, and don’t think we haven’t noticed that your ears turn bright red whenever she does it. Were you this bad around Aunt Peggy?”   
“Worse.” Steve said morosely. “I have learned the best course of action around a beautiful dame is to keep your mouth shut. And Thor tells me she’s pretty quick with that taser.” He smile a fond smile.   
“Well, you seem to be stuck. Are you ever going to ask her out? ‘Cause Sam and I have a pool going.” 

 

“Tony, are you and my best friend betting on my lovelife?” Steve asks incredulously.   
“NO!” Tony says guiltily.   
Clint dropped in from the vent. “Yes. I lost $50 the last time Nat set you up with that blonde in accounting. What the hell did you say to her? Now she won’t even look at any of the team without blushing?”

 

Steve groans. “ I took her out and on the cab ride home she grabbed my thigh and called me Daddy. I jumped out the cab.”   
Both Clint and Tony start laughing. Steve huffs and gets up to leave.  
“Enough. I’ll ask her out when I’m ready. Hey, she may even ask me out. She’s a modern girl, you know.” He heads out the door and finds Nat on the other side, leaning against the wall.  
She points her thumb back at the door.  
“She never turns down help when she’s baking. And Tony moved all the baking supplies up to the top shelf to piss her off after he found out her carrot cake is actually healthy.”   
Steve smiles and heads for the communal kitchen.


	2. Getting it together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, because next one is a flashback of Steve's old neighborhood. if anyone knows of the kitchen timer I'm talking about, post a picture in the comments. I think there has been one in every kitchen in the south, at one point. Like fry daddies and pitchers of sweet tea.

Steve entered the kitchen just in time to see Darcy climbing on top of the counter.

 

“Damnit! I moved this stuff yesterday! Who keeps putting it up here?” Darcy jerks the cabinet open, almost hitting herself in the face with it, and spies whatever she was looking for. She reaches for it just as her foot slips, but Steve is just in time to catch her as she falls. He sets her back on her feet, and she gives him a stunning smile.  
“My hero!” She coos at him.   
Steve blushes, stepping away from her. She busies herself with getting out bowls and mixers and various bits of cutlery. Steve leans against the counter, showing no signs of leaving.  
Darcy gives him the side eye, and starts humming as she gets out her phone and starts flipping through her recipes.   
“So, you don’t seem to talk much, do you Steve? At first I thought you didn’t like me, but Tony tells me that’s not true.”   
“No ma'am, uh, I mean Yes ma'am. What I mean is,um, I like you just fine.” Steve stammers. He puts his hand over his mouth. He knew that was probably very forward. He crosses and uncrosses his arms, then tries for the casual lean against the counter. He straightens up, and for the first time, Darcy sees Steve look awkward. She decides she loves it.  
“Awe, you’re adorable when you’re flustered.” Steve’s ears feel like they are on fire.   
Darcy walks over to him, getting very close.   
“Can you follow orders, solider?” She does that thing with her voice that sends a shiver down his spine. (the first time he heard it, she had been talking to her coffee. He had almost spit his own out)   
“Yes ma’m.” He took a deep breath.   
“Good.” She almost purred it.   
This dame was perfect. She reminded him of the women he had grown up with in Brooklyn. Strong willed dames who would fiercely fight to take care of their own. Darcy had adopted her science team out in the desert, and just extended it to Thor’s new friends. She was the kind of woman that could wrap you in love while still drag you around by the ear if you were an idiot. 

 

(Steve had actually seen her do it with Tony AND Thor on one particular occasion, after a Asgardian mead fueled night Steve had chose to skip. Details of what went down vary, but Tony had been locked out his lab for a week and Jane stayed with Darcy for a week while they did repairs on Thor’s suite.) She was a bit like Peggy, but without the stiff edges and Proper British manners that Bucky had hated and he had tried to ignore. 

 

She turned back to the center bar and he let out a huge sigh, while letting his eyes trail down her form. Those curves were a reminder of home. The women back in his day had occasionally been fussy about their weight, but when rationing came, no one worried about losing anymore. He despised the new “normal”. What he saw on television and in media made him a bit ill. Girls starving themselves to look like something not even the models themselves looked like. It was ridiculous. People came in all sizes. And worth didn’t depend on size. It mattered how you treated people. He was also a bit disturbed by the way what he considered pinup art with the altered models was now used to sell pretty much everything. ( remembering his dash into Time Square) One could almost become numb with the amount of skin showing. That kind of thing had a time and place, and selling children’s toys wasn’t it. (What the hell was a barbie?) 

 

Darcy opened a narrow closet next to the refrigerator and pulled out two aprons. One was a simple blue cloth, which slipped over the head and tied in the back. The other one was a a worn and well patched heirloom that he recognized as Darcy’s favorite. It was hemmed by several rows of embroidery of varying degrees of skill. This was a truely loved garment.   
Darcy split it over her head and handed him the blue one. He followed, tying it behind him as Darcy got out the milk and eggs.  
“Hmmm. I think I can get Tony to eat oatmeal if I can just tweak the recipe right. I’ll add a bit more molasses and cut out some of the brown sugar. And maybe some dried apple. Jane doesn’t count it as fruit if it’s in baked goods.” Steve nods, grabbing a bag of dried apples from the cabinet. She pauses. “I can’t use molasses if I chill the dough.” She says, tapping her finger on her chin. “Hell, if they don’t mind the apples, I’ll just drizzle them carmel. Jarvis?” The A.I.   
“Yes Miss Lewis?” Darcy winked at Steve.  
“Is Bruce still getting that raw milk downtown?”   
“Yes, I believe so, Miss Lewis.”   
Darcy give Steve a conspiratorial grin. “That means Clint has carmel. You think you can go talk him out of some, soldier?”   
Steve nods, setting the apples on the bar.  
He watches for a moment, as Darcy measures out things and almost bounces around the kitchen, finding spoons whisks. She disappears behind the bar for a minute, and when she pops up, she is holding the (totally necessary, no matter what Tony says) apple shaped kitchen timer. It was worn, and the original numbers had long since faded, but the hand painted ones were just as good, according to Darcy.   
She looked at him. “Still here? Go get that caramel!” Steve hurried off on her errand.


	3. Down memory lane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback: How A simple kitchen timer reminds Steve of home.( even if the kitchen timer wasn't quite as old as he was) ( I got sidetracked on a cute bit about Steve meeting Bucky, sorry guys about no Darcy. ) ;^( I'm still working on this, but somehow, that little red timer triggered an Idea, which turned into this. will be back to the kitchen with carmel next chapter.

Steve thought about that timer. And what it had led him to remember.   
( He had overheard Tony and Darcy fighting about it about a week ago.)  
Tony called it an eyesore.   
Darcy called it an heirloom.   
“Crossed the great desert on the long march to the east, it is forever a part of history.” she expounded, cupping it her hand carefully.  
Jane snorted. “Please, you got it in a flea market when we got lost and accidentally ended up in Mexico. Eric had to wire us money for gas and a tow, and you traded your class ring for that thing.”   
Tony waved at the ceiling. “And Jarvis is perfectly capable of acting as a timer.” he said exasperated.   
“But it has meaning. We used it for everything. To time cookies. To time how long we could run the machines before the breakers blew. To time showers. To time how long it would take for Thor to learn how to use the remote.” Darcy eyes were getting all big and watery, and Steve knew Tony was gonna lose. “If you win a Nobel Prize, this thing could be famous. Do you want Tony to throw it away?”   
Tony paused.   
“Thor doesn’t use the remote.” He said, puzzled.   
Darcy away from Foster to roll her eyes at Tony. “Yeah, We switched to a calendar.”   
Tony couldn’t help but let out a laugh.  
Jane gave both of them a hurt expression. 

 

“Oh, come on Jane! We are not picking on your boyfriend. Just tell Richie Rich here he can’t throw away the timer.” She leaned over and whispered to Jane. Tony was out of range, but Steve’s enhanced hearing picked up on it. 

 

“Tell him to keep it or I’ll tell Thor about the time you asked me to time him by hiding in the closet! I’m still never getting over it. Bosoms? Really? Who says that?” Jane turned bright red and Steve took another sip of coffee to hide his reaction.  
“We are keeping the timer!” Jane announced with force. Tony cursed. He knew Darcy was going to win, but he did want to make a point.  
“Jarvis will be hurt. You don’t want to hurt Jarvis’s feelings now do you?” He pleaded.   
“Jarvis?” Darcy said.   
“Yes Miss Lewis?” The A.I. replied.   
“Do you care if I use this potentially historical timer instead of bothering you with something as silly as baked goods?”  
“While It would be no imposition to help you time your baked goods, I feel an artist must be “in tune with their tools”, or so Sir tells me.” Tony’s jaw drops open, but he quickly recovers.   
“Jarvis, you and I got to have a talk about what art is.”   
“Just last week, you refered to Miss Lewis’s Mac and Cheese a masterpiece.”  
“Well,” Tony said, clearing his throat, “I guess I can’t argue with that. Fine, the timer stays. But I better get some muffins for Pepper out of this. She likes the orange zest ones.” Tony says, finally admitting defeat and heading back to the elevator.   
“Don’t forget Tony, Pepper is picking you up in the morning for a board meeting. You also have a consult with Reeds tomorrow!” Darcy yells at him.   
Darcy turns to where Steve was getting a refill of coffee.   
“And you are going to see Sam down in Brooklyn, right?”   
“Yes ma’m.” Steve answers.   
“I’ve got a list of thing Jarvis is having trouble getting delivered. Can you pick them up from Irvine’s and Son’s shop? They’ve got Bruce’s tea, and some kind of leaf Thor swears his mother used to give it to him as a soother. It doesn’t work on anyone else, but I think it’s like Asgardian Adderall.” She hands him a list she pulls from her pocket.   
He gives her a grin.  
“Yes ma'am!”

 

On his way home from seeing Sam at the V.A., he had stopped by the shop. It was not far from his own stomping grounds, (or ground he got stomped on, depending on who you ask) and had even met the original Irvine, back in his day, when it was called Waliczek and Sons pharmacy.(*) Three generations had owned the store before him, and it was comforting it was still in the same family, even if they did change the name. Waliczek was always a bitch to pronounce anyway.

 

He walked in, recalling the warm smell of cinnamon that he remembered from the time the old man had found him the day he had met Bucky and taken him in to patch him up.  
Irvine shook his head at the young Steve Rogers. “You’re Sara’s boy, aren’t you. She came in last week for some eucalyptus. Said your asthma has been worse this year.” Steve wiped at his tearful face, making a clean spot. Irvine tutted. He pulled out a handkerchief, wetting it at a sink in the back room.   
“What you need is a bigger friend, my boy.”   
“Can’t just let them say stuff about my dad. He died in the war. Momma loves him too much to get married again. He was a hero!” The boy puffed out his scrawny chest.  
“I’m sure he was son. Now, let’s get you cleaned up. It’s almost closing time. I'll walk you him.” Irvine handed the boy the cloth, and Steve quickly washed his face. The boy had a split lip and a shadow of a bruise along his cheek. He sighed.   
Irvine grabbed a few herbs while he was locking up and walked the boy home. He smiled when Steve had given him the address. Earlier that week, A young family had come in to introduce themselves. The Barnes family, if he remembered correctly, had moved into the very same building! Mrs. Barnes was suffering from morning sickness with her second pregnancy and someone had recommended his shop. Her son had poked around a bit, seeming bored at the adults’ conversation. James, if he recalled from the conversation, was about Steve’s age, if not quite a bit bigger.   
Sara was sitting on the porch waiting for her son.   
“Steven Rogers! Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick!” Her face was pale and she had been crying. She pulled him into a hug, and when he winced, she pulled back tto get a look at him.   
“Have you been fighting again? Steven Rogers! How many times have I told you to just walk away? You’re in big trouble!” Irvine clears his throat, and Sarah turns back to him.  
“Thank you sir, for bringing him home…He’s usually such a good boy. Did you see who he was fighting with?” She asks.  
Irvine says “I’m sorry, Mrs.Rogers. It seems the boy was waylaid in the alley of my store. A couple of the local boys have been stealing the penny candy, and Stevie here just happened to knock into them when they took off. Don’t be too harsh with him. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bad luck, not bad behavior.” He retrieves the herbs from his pocket.   
“Since he was injured in my store, I wanted to help. I’ve brought some comfrey, for the bruises, and a bit of eucalyptus. They did knock the wind out of him.” He lets of a mild grunt.  
Steve at Irvine in wonder. The man gives him a conspiratorial wink.( he was a bit of a troublemaker in his youth, and couldn’t but help the boy stay out of trouble with his mother) Steve smiles and nods along.  
The front door of the apartment building swings open noisily, and Irvine sees James as the boy hollers up the landing.  
“Maw! I don’t know anybody! How am I supposed to play with my friends if You won’t let me out or make any!” He’s storming out of the building, his pregnant mother waddling slightly behind him.   
“I told you, boy, you can’t just wander around, you’ll get lost!”  
Bucky looks back at his mother, and not looking where he is going, knocks strait into Steve. They both squeak as they go down to the ground in a pile of limbs.   
As the boys sort themselves out, Mrs Barnes manages to make it down the outer stairs of the apartment and stands next to Mrs. Rogers with her hand over her growing bump.  
“There.” Mrs. Barnes says. “A friend. Now go talk to your new friend while I talk to his mother and the nice gentalman from the pharmacy.” Both the man and Mrs. Rogers smiled.  
“Hello. I’m Winifred. My husband George and I just moved into the third floor.” She says hold ing her hand out. Sarah shakes it. “And that,” She says, pointing to the brown haired boy helping Steve to his feet, “is James.”   
James let’s out a whine.  
“Maw, it’s Bucky. I don’t want to be called James.”   
Steve finishes brushing himself off and looks up. “My name is Steve. That’s my maw, Sarah Rogers.” He nodded in her direction.   
The grown ups chat a bit while the boys talk. They tend to tune out the grownup stuff, so bucky asks Steve a question.  
“You like baseball cards?”   
Steve’s face lights up. “Oh, yeah. My dad left me his collection before he…”   
Bucky swallowed. He knew that pause. Alot of the kids in his old neighborhood got it when they talked about the war.  
“The war?” He asked quietly.  
Steve just nods, looking down at his feet.   
“Mom lost two brothers and an uncle.” Bucky adds. Everyone had lost someone, it seemed.  
The boys looked up to see Mr. Irvine leaving, having safely gotten the boy home.   
“Bye Mr. Irvine!” Steve said cheerfully. Bucky waves and grabs Steve’s sleeve.   
“Maw? Can I take Steve to see my cards?”   
His mother frowns. “I needed you out of the house so I can unpack before your father gets home.”   
Sarah interjects, “They can come to our apartment. It’s no trouble. And would you like some help unpacking? I’m sure it isn’t easy in your condition.” She motioned towards Winifred’s belly.   
“Oh, that would be very kind, if I’m not putting you out.”   
“It would be my pleasure.”  
The boys were already heading for the stairs when the ladies turned to join them. Irvine looked back one more time when he reached the end of the block, just in time to see Steve smile widely at his new friend. Well, the old man thought, that was perfect timing. Hopefully the boys were on thier way to becoming friends. The world after the war was a harsh place, but sometimes things worked out.


End file.
